A recent Washington Post editorial criticized Georgetown for the low graduation rates of its men’s basketball team, stirring discussion about how the Univeristy educates its most famous athletes.
The graduation rate for the basketball team was 47 percent for the freshmen class that entered in 1996 and graduated in 1999, according to the NCAA. By contrast, Georgetown’s overall graduation rates excel compared to other universities: 93 percent for non-athletes, and 91 percent for all student-athletes.
Although Athletic Director Bernard Muir refused to comment for this article, he responded to the Post editorial with a Letter to the Editor, arguing that basketball team members who play for four years almost all graduate. Since 1996, of all players who played four seasons, 16 of 17 graduated, he noted.
Georgetown’s graduate rate is lowered by players who transfer or withdraw from the University. Lindsey Luebchow, a Program Associate at the New America Foundation, a non-profit public policy institute, said that this does not excuse Georgetown.
“It says something about how Georgetown is supporting their student-athletes,” she said. “If they don’t think they’re going to get a degree from an elite university like Georgetown, that might be a reason why they transfer.”
Other statistics take transfers into account. The Post used the Federal Graduation Rate (FGR), which measures the number of students enrolled as freshmen who graduate within six years.
The NCAA uses the Graduation Success Rate (GSR), which takes into account transfers and subtracts student-athletes who leave before graduation “as long as they would have been academically eligible to compete had they remained.”
Georgetown’s GSR is 64 percent, higher than most other 2007 Sweet 16 teams but lower than Butler, Vanderbilt, Florida and Southern Illinois. That means that many of the players that transferred or withdrew, who Muir referred to in his letter, were not in good enough academic standing to earn a degree.
One explanation for the rates, said Luebchow, is that Georgetown is a top academic university but must recruit the same type of players as schools with lower academic standards.
Cliff Goldstein (COL ’09) does not believe that Georgetown should compromise its academics for basketball. He said he is a huge fan of the Hoyas, but does not think players that do not have good enough academic credentials should be admitted. In Goldstein’s opinion, players should meet fairly high minimum requirements, and if they fail, they should be gone.
“There are a lot of athletes that train more than the basketball team,” he said.
Goldstein is a member of the intramural Triathlon team, and said that he and his teammates are able to excel academically despite training and travel. He believes he trains more than the basketball players – he works out two to three hours a day, six days a week, he said.
Hoya Blue Communications Director Matthew Kamenski (COL ’07) said thinks that the classroom comes first.
However, he also said that, to a degree, he is willing to compromise academics for talent.
“I have no problem with the school lowering standards a little for athletes or anyone with a talent … that person has more to offer the University,” he said.
Kaminski also defended the current basketball program, agreeing with Muir’s criticism of the Post editorial for relying on old data. The data is from players that entered Georgetown well before John Thompson III was hired, while John Thompson, Jr. and Craig Esherick were head coaches.
“Obviously, [the men’s basketball graduation rates] don’t look good. But they were from 1996 to 1999, so I don’t think it’s a reflection on the program’s current situation,” Kamenski said.
The NCAA does not punish schools based on either the FGR or the GSR. But the NCAA has said that schools would be punished – by losing scholarships – for failing to meet the standards of the Academic Progress Rate, which measures how successful colleges are at keeping student-athletes moving towards graduation.
The University of Florida, which achieved a GSR of 100 percent, is known to have good support structures for its athletes. Tom Williams, the Assistant Athletic Director for Student Services at UF, said that athletes there have a number of resources available to them, including tutors, mentoring and learning specialists.
“We really shower our student-athletes with support,” he added
Georgetown does not tutor its players, but the team does have an advisor who travels with the team and monitors their academic progress, according to Director of Sports Information Bill Shapland.
Aside from direct academic support, Luebchow suggested bonuses for coaches to ensure that players are kept on track academically.
“Coaches get incentives [in their contract] for making the NCAA Tournament, so why not for kids graduating?”
